Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy very much. I put women's healthcare services front and centre in this Government in terms of investment and expansion. I believe we have to make up for many decades of lack of investment. The House broadly agrees that thanks to the work of our healthcare workers there has been important progress over the past three years. We will launch a new women's health action plan later on this year for the next two years. The first two years – 2022 and 2023 - are done.

Specifically in response to the Deputy's question about maternity services, there was investment of €16 million in 2021 and 2022, which got the national maternity strategy going again. Core to that strategy is the question raised by her of choice for women in terms of whether they want a consultant-led approach in the hospital, a midwife-led approach in the hospital or a midwife-led approach in the community and at home. Choice for women in terms of options for birth is core to all of this.

There is a disagreement between the consultant body – maybe not all of them but I am speaking in generalisations here – and the midwives. I met with a fantastic group of midwives at the INMO conference some time ago. Their view is that the time to the hospital – the current policy is set at 30 minutes – should be longer and they gave very good reasons for that. I also met very experienced obstetricians who said why they believe that 30 minutes is the right way to go from a patient safety perspective. Obviously I am not qualified to comment on that. There is an ongoing discussion on whether it should be 30 minutes or longer and what resources need to be in place for that to happen. I can tell the Deputy what I and the Government want to facilitate from the perspective of the direction of travel. It is the greatest possible options for women, but with an obvious caveat that those services need to keep women and their babies safe.

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